ATG Hot Topic of the Week: Jimi Hendrix, Snow White, & Streaming Video: Or, Copyright, Copyright, & More Copyright!

by Jonathan H. Harwell, Georgia Southern University, jharwell@georgiasouthern.edu

The United States Supreme Court has been hearing arguments on Golan v. Holder, No. 10-545.  At issue is “whether Congress can remove works from the public domain and place them back under copyright protection,” as it did in 1994.  The Chronicle of Higher Education has the scoop, including the Jimi Hendrix argument.  Peter Decherney at the University of Pennsylvania has published an op-ed in The New York Times about what restrictive copyright laws mean for the Hollywood film industry.  (Bonus editorial on Peter and the Wolf from Mother Jones here.)

Meanwhile, “A federal judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit by an educational media trade group and one of its constituents against the University of California over the legality of streaming copyrighted videos on secure course websites.”  Inside Higher Ed has the rundown.